


It's Still Dark Outside

by WildConcerto



Series: nothing is so healing as the human touch [2]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: F/M, Fluff and Angst, Force Bond, Mentions of emotional/psychological abuse, My Poor Space Kids, Raiders of the Lost Ark vibes, Rating might go up, Touch-Starved Rey, Touch-starved Kylo, no need to read part 1 (strongly suggested though)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-15
Updated: 2016-10-14
Packaged: 2018-08-22 11:40:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,692
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8284510
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WildConcerto/pseuds/WildConcerto
Summary: His end of the bond is silent. She grows worried, and wants to whisper his name as an attempt to get his attention, but she realizes she doesn’t know what to call him. 
No matter what I do, he says suddenly, making Rey jump, keep in mind that I won’t hurt you. I never will.
He shuts down his end of the bond, as he has already done in moments he’d rather not share with her, and Rey takes deep breaths to stay calm. She is worried for him, and she can’t help but seethe at her own powerlessness and how all of this is directed towards Kylo Ren, of all people.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This is going to be in three parts. As I said in the tags, no need to read part 1, though I strongly suggest it.

_ I’m coming. _

His voice wakes her up. It’s not the first time. She has already been startled by him screaming in his sleep, calling for her, and all she can do is reach out and comfort him.

She can’t help it. She can see his fears like in a holovid, and she knows them all too well. She has faced similar demons back on Jakku, but she has learned over the years to push them away, forget about them as soon as she would awake, and think about survival before anything else.

Here, on Ahch-To, she has nothing to fear. But the evil spirits of her past use her newfound peace to gnaw at her, extinguishing stars one by one until she is surrounded by nothing more than darkness. When she wakes up and sees the sunlight piercing through her window, she takes deep breaths and swallows any sob trying to come out. She forced herself not to cry on Jakku. She won’t break down now.

_ Don’t worry. I feel it too. _

She frowns and curls away, despite the fact she knows she is alone – in her hut at least. He is always present, tugging at a string attached to her soul, but she still needs time to get used to it. She still has trouble reconciling the monster she met and the boy she found crying in a corner of her mind. Somehow, the boy wins over the monster, and he seems so familiar she cannot let him be, no matter how hard she tries.

He sends her a mental image of a cave full of brightly colored crystals – kyber crystals. Rey remembers Luke mentioning them once, and at their sight, she can’t help but smile, since she just  _ knows  _ there is one in there just waiting, belonging only to her.

“Thank you,” she whispers.

_ Don’t. _

She senses regret from him, and she hears him mutter to himself he shouldn’t have even tried to reach out to her, and that if he wasn’t more careful, less  _ weak _ , everything would be so much easier for them both…

_ What’s the matter?  _ She asks.

_ I’m coming. _

She holds her breath, and for a moment, she is unsure if she should be glad or afraid.

She frowns. She  _ should  _ be afraid, and yet, there is something wrong.

_ The Supreme Leader has noticed I’ve been delaying this trip for too long already. He’s getting suspicious. If I don’t– _

_ I’ll be there,  _ she interrupts him, and she wants to slap herself immediately afterwards. She didn’t intend that to come out at all…

His end of the bond is silent. She grows worried, and wants to whisper his name as an attempt to get his attention, but she realizes she doesn’t know what to call him.

_ No matter what I do,  _ he says suddenly, making Rey jump,  _ keep in mind that I won’t hurt you. I never will. _

He shuts down his end of the bond, as he has already done in moments he’d rather not share with her, and Rey takes deep breaths to stay calm.

She is worried for him, and she can’t help but seethe at her own powerlessness and how all of this is directed towards Kylo Ren, of all people.

 

* * *

When he arrives, the whole setting looks like the most melodramatic battle scene one could imagine.

There is a thunderstorm, far worse than the two or three she has witnessed on Jakku. There is a black ship piercing through the clouds and the lightening, crashing on Ahch-To’s shores. There are eight wraiths coming out of the wreckage, seven of them heading straight towards Master Luke. He awaits them, the green glow of his lightsaber providing a reassuring light in the weather’s torment.

But the tallest of them all marches towards her, his walk uncertain, and it’s a miracle he doesn’t trip on the island’s uneven rocks while his black robes billow in the wind. Rey realizes as he gets closer that he has his mask on. She swallows and regains some composure. She wishes that he would have come to her unmasked.

She scolds herself for thinking that way. She scolds herself for all those times where they had consoled each other in their nightmares, for all those times where she trusted him while he was nothing else but her worse enemy.

She ignites the blue lightsaber, standing, fierce and proud, against him and his red lightsaber he twirls and brandishes forward.

_ Remember what I told you,  _ she suddenly hears him say.  _ I won’t hurt you. But the Knights are there. II'm their Master, but they're only waiting for a single sign of weakness from me to take my place. I don’t want them to see us—like this—you know… _

There is something almost endearing in his stammering, and Rey can sense that if he hadn’t had his mask on, she could have seen the tip of his ears glowing red in some sort of embarrassment. But right now, she is too angry to even hesitate. She doesn’t understand him, and it infuriates her. She knows he is incapable of lying, and that he truly wouldn’t hurt her, but the rest makes so little sense and–

Without further ado, she rushes towards him, and she is fuming.

He stops every single attack of hers, but she can sense in him something close to boredom. She grows more and more furious, until she feels a hint of concern for her from him. It suddenly stops her dead in her tracks, as she remembers Luke’s teachings.

_ Anger leads to the Dark Side. _

In a millisecond, she sees that chasm building itself in the ground on a half-destroyed Starkiller base.

This time, she realizes they’re once again near a precipice, and she sees the ground fragmenting itself once again between them.

A single step from either of them could send her right into the sea.

In defeat, she lights out her lightsaber, and can’t hold back a pleading look she directs to Ren.

He lights out his own weapon as well, and extends a hand towards her.

At the same time, the ground collapses beneath her feet, and she closes her eyes and screams as she awaits Death’s claws…

…until she feels herself being deposited on a stone floor she would have most likely broken her bones on if it wasn’t for her unexplained soft landing.

She opens her eyes, and realizes she’s in a cave. She gets up, and heads towards the entrance, and sees the sea right below.

She sees a black silhouette jumping down, his gloved hands grabbing the edge of the cave to save himself from falling into the sea, but he is slipping.

Without hesitating, Rey grabs his arms, cringing as she pulls him out, saving him from the sea’s cold arms as he saved her from them. He thankfully jolts forward, helping her in her rescue.

They both go into the cave, finding safety, and stop to stare at each other. Rey is soaking wet thanks to the storm rain, and she shivers but is still determined to stand straight.

“Take your mask off,” she commands. “You don’t need it around me.”

She can’t help but be surprised of how easily he discards it whenever he’s around her. The mask falls on the ground with a heavy thud. She sees his face for the first time ever since that fight on Starkiller base, the scar she branded him clashing with the rest of his features. She swallows uncomfortably, conflicted between a pang of regret and the belief he deserved it.

He, on the other hand – he gazes at her longer than he should, and she can see the corners of his lips twitching upwards, and he's almost smiling. As Rey concentrates on his presence, she realizes he’s… glad to see her.

He discards his cowl, and the rest of his clothing seems to have handled the rain better than hers. He hands the cowl towards her.

“It’s cold in here, and you’re wet. Take it.”

“No,” she snaps, and her face becomes as scrunched up as a kinrath pup’s when she sees him roll his eyes.

“We might stay in here for a while,” he replies, lifting his chin, and Rey wants to smack his head from behind. He clenches his fists, and takes a deep breath, as if he’s desperately trying to stay calm. “I don’t have a medpac near, and if you catch a cold, you might as well manage on your own.”

She snorts. “Like I ever had a problem with that.” At that reply, she finds him staring at her, and she realizes he knows far too much on her to take her last sentence seriously. She snatches the cowl from his hands, glaring at him. She almost expects him to be smug, but he simply turns away, his expression strangely wistful.

She sits on the ground, covering her shoulders with the cowl, but she’s still cold and shivering. It is only a matter of minutes before her teeth start chattering.

He comes and sits near her, and he oozes of warmness. Without thinking any further about it, she huddles herself against him to fight the cold.

She feels his arm twitching, as if he refraining himself from putting it around her shoulders.

Lightening strikes, and thunder follows, and it all roars so loudly it’s obvious it hit very close to their hiding place. They hear something above them grumble, and huge boulders fall, blocking the cave’s entrance.

They both jump, and instinctively, he puts his arms around in a protective embrace.

As the initial panic leaves them, Rey can’t help but glance at him quizzically. She can feel his embarrassment as he pulls away from her.

“No,” she hears herself whisper. “I’m… I’m still cold.”

He doesn't need to get it told twice. They cuddle together. Rey’s head is laying half on his chest, half on his shoulder, while his chin is resting on top.  

He lets out a long sigh, and Rey can sense it is out of contentment. 

Perhaps it is the bond, but Rey can't help but feel at peace herself. 

**Author's Note:**

> You can find me on cosette-giry.tumblr.com. Come and bug me if you want ;)


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